WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) — Some dog owners are worried about their pet’s safety in a neighborhood in Jeannette, Westmoreland County.

The reason: the trains that constantly rumble through the area have hit and killed their dogs, and other animals as well.

Paula Demko’s pit bull named “Mariah” had to be put to sleep a few weeks ago.

Demko told KDKA-TV News, “she was killed, we had to have police come out, and put her down, because she was so torn apart, we just couldn’t see her suffer.”

Another neighbor, Kody Kavran, said he had to put two of his dogs down, they were hit on two separate occasions. Pets could be attracted to the train tracks because of other animals that were struck by trains.

One teenager, who didn’t want to be identified, said he saw a dog, and two deer mutilated, as well as a possum. He described the tracks in the 14th street area.

“When I first saw a deer, his head was missing,” he said, “then I kept walking, and I saw a pit bull and it’s head was gone, then two more deer and a possum.”

One dog owner who lives near the tracks, Candie Teeter, said the solutions are simple – people should keep their pets on leashes, or fenced in.

Teeter said half the people in the neighborhood have dogs. She she often spots deer feeding in her back yard, which sits adjacent to the railroad tracks.